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Jamaican Mango | Anthracothorax mango
Jamaicaanse mango | Mango jamaicano
The Jamaican Mango is a large, dark hummingbird found only in Jamaica. Alongside the two streamertails and Vervain Hummingbird it is one of the island's four hummingbirds, and the only one with an almost black body. It is frequent in gardens and at flowering trees along the coast.
Voice
Not very vocal. The call is a sharp, rasping tic, often repeated at intervals (tic ... tic ... tic). No song has been described.
Recording: Nick Komar — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, with a slightly curved black bill. The male has a dull green crown, glossy magenta-purple sides to the head and neck, a dark bronze-green back and velvety black underparts. The central tail feathers are dark bronze, the outer ones glossy violet with a narrow dark blue band. The female closely resembles the male but has greenish flanks and white tips to the outer tail feathers.
Confusion species
No other Jamaican hummingbird is this large and dark. Red-billed Streamertail Trochilus polytmus and Black-billed Streamertail Trochilus scitulus are glossy green with a straight bill; males have long tail streamers, females are white below. Vervain Hummingbird Mellisuga minima is much smaller, with a short straight bill and whitish underparts.
Habitat
Forest edges, coastal woodland, dry forest and scrub, gardens, parks and plantations, including drier areas; mainly from sea level to about 800 m, rarely to 1,500 m. Avoids mangroves. Feeds at flowering trees, including introduced species in gardens, and catches insects in flight.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Only in Jamaica, where it is a common resident throughout the island, densest along the north coast. Does not occur outside Jamaica.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In gardens and parks along the north coast, for example around Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, and at the feeders at Rocklands in the hills above Montego Bay. Flowering trees in gardens and along roads are good places to wait.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is common and adapts well to gardens and planted trees.
Scientific name
Anthracothorax mango | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Trochilus Mango; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Anthracothorax was introduced in 1831 by Boie. Anthracothorax is Greek, from anthrax 'coal' (i.e. 'black') and thōrax 'chest', after the black central stripe on breast and belly. mango is of uncertain origin; according to Jobling possibly corrupted from a lost Jamaican local name, 'Man God-bird', for a large hummingbird. The specimen the first description was based on came from Jamaica.